NCJ Number
113389
Date Published
1988
Length
26 pages
Annotation
After describing the nature and extent of marital rape, this paper discusses factors that promote it, assessment and treatment, ethical and legal issues, and future directions.
Abstract
Although an underreport, the largest study of marital rape to date, using a random sample of adult women, found that 14 percent of ever-married women had been raped by husbands or former husbands. Factors that promote marital rape are historical, legal, economic, and social. Research findings indicate that most marital rape victims suffer extreme and long-term trauma. Helping professionals can learn about the dynamics of marital rape so they can become sensitized to the symptoms of marital rape trauma. Legal reform to criminalize marital rape is the solution to ethical issues associated with the problem. Arguments against such criminalization cannot be supported by evidence. There is a need for more and larger studies of raped wives and rapist husbands. Professional education, stronger economic positions for women, and a new model of nonaggressive masculinity can help to reduce and effectively address marital rape. 78 references.